Changing Culture and Society, Post 2

From the very beginning, I should make something clear.  I'm fairly pessimistic about the role of laws and rules as they pertain to our lives in the world.  Not that I think we should do without them, but my experience in life has been that, if someone wants to break a rule or law, they probably will, and the likelihood is that they will also get away with it.  I've seen far too many people not truly stop at stop signs, or run through red lights, to think that people will respond only because there happens to be a law or rule in place.  On a far more tragic scale, the recent shootings that have taken place in our nation show us that people will disregard the rules and laws, even when it comes down to life and death situations.

Passing more laws or rules will not serve to change culture and society.  True, from an outward viewpoint, it may help curb some expressions of disobedience, but for the person who is truly set on doing something, a law will simply not stop them.  Plus, I think we would all have to admit that we keep the rules or laws that are in place for different reasons.  Take a speed limit, for example.  There are some who will stick to the limit simply because that's what the law says.  They won't know why the law says that the limit is what it is, but that's just what you are supposed to do.  Others will try to discover the reason for the law.  A school zone speed limit is in place to show our care and concern for the children who may be walking there.  That desire to care for our neighbor (love our neighbor) then becomes the reason for keeping the law.  Another person might keep the law simply because they are afraid of being pulled over by the police and having to pay a fine.  And yet another person may try to see just how much they can stretch the law before they get caught, seeing just how much they can get away with.

Rules and laws may help to make society good, but they do not get to the heart of the person.  They simply describe what is acceptable behavior.  They do not get to the intentions of the heart and soul within the person.  And it is for this reason that we cannot judge a person's goodness or lack of goodness upon the mere keeping of the law.

Some people will keep the law, not out of care for others, but just to prove that they are a good person.  They don't do it for the benefit of others, but for the benefit of their own personal reputation.  While we see their "good works", we also realize that their good works are done with an eye toward themselves. 

Other people will look at the law, see that it tells them something that they don't want to hear, and then that law will drive them even further in the opposite direction.  If the law says to drive 65, they will drive 80 just because they like the thrill of "getting away with it".  Sure, they may tap on the brakes when they see the police car sitting on the side of the road, but overall, they throw the law in the face of others, and don't care if it is an inconvenience to others. 

I could keep on going on, but by now, I hope you get the point.  Simply passing more rules and laws, or even placing a greater emphasis on the ones already in place, just will not serve to bring about the change that we see that needs to be brought about.  So what will bring about that kind of change?  We'll investigate that coming up.

Changing Culture and Society

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to quite a few of the changes in society that I have seen change in my lifetime.  Granted, there are way too many of them to list them out, and so today, I want to look at it from the bigger picture perspective.  I realize that this paints with a broad brush, and that there are always exceptions, but I do think that there is something to doing that every once in a while.

It seems that there are quite a few people who recognize that our western society has proceeded in directions that we didn't necessarily want to go down.  So what has seemed to be the general approach to changing that direction?  Pass more laws.  There seems to be the thought that, if we make something illegal, people will stop doing it.  Lawmakers do it as they try to pass laws on gun control, health care, and all sorts of other things.  In the church, we tend to do it by emphasizing how we don't believe in certain things, like abortion, or divorce.

While I see that there is some value in this, there seems to be an idea out there that people will respond positively to laws.  There's almost an assumption that people will do what lawmakers or church leaders tell them to do.  And in my mind, while we can expect that to some degree, it tends to overlook the biblical reality that we are all born sinful, and that we tend to rebel against laws and rules.  Even when those laws and rules are put in place for our good and for our protection, we still don't like to think that someone else is telling us what we can or cannot do.

I recognize the good of laws and rules.  God gave us the Commandments to show what a perfect life would look like.  Since we are now contaminated by the taint of sin, those laws aren't guides, but instead reflect back the worst in ourselves.  So placing a higher emphasis on them seems likely to have a negative effect on us.  Instead of driving home the point that these are meant to be good for us, it seems to make us resent them even more.

I won't pretend that I know a good solution.  The fact of the matter is, we cannot avoid rules and laws, since they are in place for our good and protection.  We can't disregard them simply because we may not like them.  At the same time, we also cannot place too high of an importance on them, simply because we are sinful people who tend to rebel against them.  Add in the fact that every person probably has a different balance that works for them, not just in general, but in respect to each law or rule, and the task simply seems to be too overwhelming.

In upcoming posts, I will express a few of my thoughts on how we can work at changing the culture and society that we are part of.  As I think my way through this, I think you will see that it isn't an easy change, nor will it happen overnight.  And yet, when has anything worth fighting for ever been easy?

Demons, Exorcisms, and the Like

You don't have to read very far in any of the four Gospel accounts of Jesus' life to come across demons and exorcisms.  In fact, in the life of Jesus, it can almost seem like He was encountering a demon possessed person practically every other day.  (Okay, maybe I exaggerate a bit, but you do come across quite a few of them.)

I remember a time growing up where I heard many "theories" being presented as to these demon possessions.  One that has stuck in my mind deals with the psychological.  It's the idea that the people that Jesus encountered were dealing with some kind of psychological illness rather than demon possession, and that Jesus really did nothing more than set them free from that illness, through some kind of psychological assistance.  The idea behind this whole theory seems to be that there really aren't demons, just psychological disorders that need to be dealt with, and the people of Jesus' time didn't know the difference, so they just assumed that the people had demons.

In recent years, I've thought a lot about this particular theory regarding demons and exorcism.  One thing that stands out to me in this is the denial of unexplainable spiritual beings.  This theory seems to indicate that there is no such things as demons.  Demons are only psychological disorders.  We don't need exorcisms, we need a cure to the illness.

To me, that's way too easy of an answer.  It also seems to fit with the modern mindset that we can get to the root cause of illness and then get rid of it.  But for some reason, the more we seem to dig into illnesses, the more we seem to discover that we don't really know all that much about them, much less how to eliminate them.  Plus, it seems that there are many who are starting to lean back in the direction of unknown spiritual forces at work in the world that simply cannot be explained.

In one way, this is a good direction for us to go.  It means that our minds are opened up to things that we can't necessarily explain or prove, and most things of a "spiritual" nature fall along those lines.  That would seem to open the door toward the belief in God a bit more than what modern science had done.

Yet, there are also dangers to this.  You may have noticed the recent number of movies and books that highlight werewolves, vampires, and the like.  An acceptance of the spiritual world is not without its dangers, as we humans seem to have a tendency to be drawn toward the darker side of things.  And these things don't draw us closer to God, but rather away from Him.

Dangers, and opportunities.  How will we, as Christians, respond?  Silence doesn't seem to be an answer.  It seems that the fallback is what it has always been for Christians.  We fall back on God working in this world, and especially in Jesus, God in human flesh, who overcame those unexplainable things through His life, death, and resurrection for us.

God's Favor

One of the great things about the Christian faith is that we declare God's favor upon people.  God looks upon the people of this world with a great deal of favor.  God's preferred way of looking at people is according to His favor.  It's only when that favor has been rejected that God looks upon us according to His wrath or anger.  But that's not what God would prefer.  He would rather see everyone receive His favor.

In one respect, there is the kind of favor that God pours out upon every single person who has life in this world.  It's the favor of being one of His created beings.  In that sense, God is the Father of everyone in that He created us all.  From the time we were conceived, God knit us together and formed us.  His hand is the one behind the DNA combinations that formed who we are.  His hand is the one that gently shaped us as we grew from a single sperm and egg into the human beings that we are.

So that's one element of God's favor.  He is our Father as our creator.  But there is also a second kind of favor that God seeks to pour out on the people of this world.  This favor is found in what He accomplished through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  It's the favor that takes us flawed, sinful human beings and creates a new life, one that is right with God in every aspect.  It's the favor that speaks of the forgiveness of sins, and the restoration of perfection that God intended to be present with His creation from the beginning.

I truly believe that we have times where we tend to limit the kind of favor that we believe God pours out on the world.  There can be times where Christians say that the whole world stands in God's favor, and there are other times where Christians say that only Christians have God's favor.  I see how that can sound kind of confusing, and I believe it's because we fail to distinguish between the two kinds of favor.

God looks upon the world with a universal kind of favor.  It's the favor in which He sees what He has made and rejoices in it.  He wants to see that it is taken care of, and so He provides food and home and family.  It's the kind of favor that is not unique to Christians, but is found throughout all creation, even among those who do not know God or call upon His name.

God loves to pour out His favor on the world.  He does pour that universal favor out.  The thing is, God also wants that more specific favor, found in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, to be found in all the same places as His universal favor.  So He sends His people, the ones who have received this second favor, the forgiveness of sins and new life, out to all of those who have received His universal favor, with the hope that we will declare that specific favor in their lives as well.

I don't know if you've given much thought to that, but I think it's a distinction that is worth making.  When we properly distinguish God's favor, we can say that God looks upon the whole world with favor, and that God's favor is found among those whom He has redeemed.  We therefore strive to be conscious of which favor we are talking about, then.

Spiritualizing Faith

During the time of the Reformation, there was a group of people that Martin Luther regularly made as his targets.  Granted, you could say that there were quite a few groups that he targeted, but for today, I want to focus on the monastic orders of his day.  There seems to have been a prevailing thought that, if you offered your life to God and then went away to a convent or abbey, you were serving God in a far "higher", holier way than anyone else. 

The problem with this, as Luther saw it, was that the individual who did this basically left the rest of society in order to focus on God.  While the focus on God part wasn't bad in and of itself, Luther did take exception to a couple of things that this gave birth to.  First, such an action started to be seen as far higher and holier than any other act of faith.  Second, it took people away from their relationships with their neighbors.  Their faith, in essence, started to become a thing between them and God, without any interaction with those that the Bible rightfully would call their neighbors.

Faith was becoming spiritualized.  Your "rightness" with God came to be seen as how much you could focus on Him rather than in living out your faith in the relationships that God has given in life.  So Luther went to battle against this idea.  He would point out that, for example, a husband who loved and cared for his wife and family was fulfilling God's will and commands far greater than the man who left society behind to focus only on God.  The milkmaid who milked her cow to provide for her family and neighbors was doing far more in fulfillment of God's law than those in the convents and monestaries.

What was Luther's basis for this?  It basically boiled down to one major point.  God tells us in the Bible that we are to care for our neighbor and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  One can hardly do that by separating oneself from the neighbor.  God's Word doesn't command us to go off and live life separated from everyone, but does speak much about our relationships with one another.  From that basis, Luther asserted that it's far better to do the things that God's Word does say rather than to invent things that may seem more holy, but aren't actually spoken by God.

We can still find ourselves in this same dilemma, though.  It's far easier to tell someone that we will pray for them than to actually find a way to help them in their need.  And this is part of the reason why I think Luther explained the commandments in his Small Catechism the way he did.  For almost all of them, he doesn't just explain what God wants us to avoid, but he then adds a part of what it actually means that we do in fulfillment of the commandment.  Not murdering doesn't simply mean that we don't kill our neighbor, but that we lift up our hands to help him in every physical need.  Not bearing false witness doesn't mean simply that we don't lie about our neighbor, but that we seek to build him up with our words and how we talk about him. 

In many respects, our faith is between us and God.  However, the realm in which that faith is lived out is always in the context of our neighbor.  So I encourage you today to think about how God gives you the opportunity to put flesh and blood to your faith in your relationships with your neighbors.

Books, books and more books

With my recent move, I also had the chance to move my many books with me.  Last week, I had some of the young people at the new congregation move my boxes of books over to my office, and earlier this week, I took a little time to unpack them all.  Now my shelves stare back at me, not empty and lifeless, but with many spines and smiles!

That got me thinking this afternoon.  Just how much wisdom and knowledge is there out there in our world today?  I remember reading somewhere that the amount of information that we humans uncover or have access to doubles about every 5 years or so in our information age.  I truly believe that this is, in part, because God has created a unique world with a depth to it that we can never fully attain. 

But I think this also shows us something significant.  Knowledge is one thing. Wisdom is quite another.  Think of it like this.  Knowledge is knowing how something works.  Wisdom is knowing why it works, and how it works best.  Knowledge will only get you so far.  Knowledge without wisdom can actually be deadly.  Knowing how a gun works is one thing.  Understanding that it's not intended to be pointed at people while loaded is completely different.

Of the many books on my shelves, all have great knowledge to impart.  Some of them even have wisdom to impart for those wise enough to grasp it.  And yet, even as I look at them, I recognize that everything they impart pales in comparison to another kind of wisdom and knowledge.

"Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight", says King Solomon in Proverbs 9:10.  Earlier in that same book, he also asserts "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction".  (Proverbs 1:7)  Both wisdom and knowledge find their source and origin in the LORD.  Knowledge comes from Him.  Wisdom comes from Him.  And in the end, He is the end point of all wisdom and knowledge.

Think about all the knowledge and wisdom you have obtained throughout your life.  How does it find its source and origin in the LORD?  How does it point to the LORD as its final end?  After all, without that, it's all just foolishness and a chasing after the wind.

When busy is good

One of the addictions that I believe we tend to have as Americans is an addiction to being busy.  Not necessarily to being productive, but to being busy.  I dare you to look at your schedule for the week right now.  How many things on your activities list are things that build you up as a person, or as a family?  How many things on that schedule simply seem to be a time consumer, not really being of any overall benefit, but just calling for your time?

I have long believed that we Americans tend to have a hard time developing our priorities.  Or maybe I should say that we tend to let others determine what has priority for us.  We just hate to say no, or to let someone down, and so we agree, even if we don't have the time, or even if we end up giving a half-hearted effort simply because we are being pulled in so many ways.  We find that the things we are involved in don't bring us joy, but we start to look at them as though "I have to do this" rather than, "I get to do this."  And that makes a great deal of difference in how we participate, and in the effort we give.

I've read countless books that talk about listing out our priorities, and then saying no to the things that detract from what should be our highest priorities.  There's a book out there called "Good to Great," in which the author suggests that the hardest thing to do is to say no to something good that simply won't lead us to greatness.  I would suggest that this extends into our personal lives.  We find so many good things to do that we don't have the time or effort to make one or two things great in our lives.

Jesus really seems to have an idea on how to focus on the great, and not get distracted by the good.  We read stories about Him healing a few people, but I would dare to suggest that not everyone in the world got healed.  It even says that Jesus didn't do some miracles in places such as His hometown, in part, at least, because of their lack of faith. 

The thing is, Jesus could have made it His goal to do the good work of healing.  But that would have then consumed His time and focus on doing the great, journeying to the cross to offer His life as the sacrifice for sin, and to rise to life again as our hope for new life.  Jesus focused on the great, not to the exclusion of the good, but rather, giving the good it's proper priority in what He set out to accomplish.

As I take up my tasks at a new church, I know I'm going to be pulled in many different directions.  There are always so many good things that we can do as God's people, and that we should be doing.  One of my goals is to discover what the great things are that we can do as a congregation, and then give guidance toward them as our priority.  Not that we intend to exclude the good, but that we keep the great in focus.  And I pray that the LORD will give us His Spirit abundantly to discern what those "great" things are.

Quiet Time

Over the years, I've had a significant number of times where I have been working in my office with no one else in the building.  The phones were silent, there wasn't anything urgent that needed to be done, and so I was blessed with some quiet time.  I've learned that times such as these are really good for some quiet reflection, some prayer, and even some good Scripture study.

This is the kind of thing that we American's tend not to understand very well.  It seems that our schedules are so busy, we're always on the go, and we're surrounded by so much sound and background noise that we have a hard time when it gets quiet.  Think about the last group conversation you were part of.  When that moment of silence occurred, did everyone seem to revel in it, or did you find yourself fidgeting around, waiting for someone to break the silence and start talking?

Silent times are blessings from God, but I also believe that they are blessings that we have to learn to understand and appreciate, especially since we live in such a frenzied world.  Silence now seems foreign.  It seems to be the intruder into our lives.  And yet, silence can be so refreshing.  Quiet time with God, whether in reading His Word or in prayer, gives a tremendous forum to clear our minds of the things that get in the way of discerning the leading of God's Spirit.  It's a bit of a lost art, and one that I would dearly love to see many people reclaim.

For me, some of this silent time comes when I run.  Other times of it happen when I'm alone in my office, or when I spend time in prayer.  My hope is that you also grow to see the importance of silent, quiet time, especially when you spend it in some way with God.

"For You"

Last year, for one of my classes, I had to read an interesting book.  The book talked about the study of theology, and took the perspective that theology has one primary aim and goal. That goal is to bring what God has done in Christ Jesus to the individual, to bring that person into the saving arms of Christ Jesus.  In essence, the author said that theology isn't just the study and formulation of doctrines.  Instead, it is taking what God has said and then saying to people, this is FOR YOU.

I had to pause and reflect on a lot of what I had said and taught over the years after I finished reading that book.  As I look back on many of the messages that I have prepared and preached, I see that there are many times that I have talked about God, and about Jesus, but way too many times where I have failed to take the next step, to say that what God accomplished in Jesus was done FOR YOU, the people who were listening.  Sure, what I said may have been accurately in line with what the Bible says, but failure to make it personal is still failure.

I wonder how many people used to sit in pews, listening to sermons like so many of mine, hearing doctrinal dissertations rather than a message that was spoken to them, and then decided that what they were hearing simply wasn't for them.  I have to confess my part in that, and, since that class, have really tried to make sure that I make it clear each time I speak that God did what He did for every single person who is there and listening that day.  I don't want to get up and lecture ABOUT God, but want everyone there to hear and know that God was at work for them.  And now, each week, I reflect on the words that I prepare to speak to make sure that I make that obvious at least two to three times in each message.

As you reflect on the messages you hear from Christian pulpits, how often do you hear specifically that God has been at work, especially in Christ Jesus, for you?  In fact, this coming Sunday, count how many times the preacher indicates that God is at work for you.  And then, don't be afraid to say how you either heard it, or how you failed to hear it.  Praise the message if it was made clear that God was doing His work for you.  If that message failed to be proclaimed, then that preacher needs the reminder, more than ever, that God's word needs to be proclaimed in such a way as to assure every listener that God is at work for them.

Why pray if God knows my thoughts?

As we read through the Bible, we get a lot of words that describe what God is like.  We hear words like "holy" or "just", and some make more sense to us than others.  We have a pretty decent idea of how to describe if something is just or not, but we have a harder time describing holy.  Some are more believable than others, too.  We read that God is kind and loving, though our lives sometimes don't seem to reflect that love and kindness as we face various struggles and trials.

Another description of God is that He knows everything.  He is all-knowing, or as the Latin phrase would say, omniscient.  God knows what all will happen, what all has happened, and what is happening throughout this world at the current moment.  Yes, He even knows what the ants in the hills are doing, and which leaves fell to the ground, and what that droplet of water in the middle of the Indian Ocean is doing.  And that also means that He knows what we are thinking at any given moment.  He not only sees what we are doing, He peeks into our minds and sees our thoughts.

Which brings up an interesting question.  Why do we need to pray, then?  If God can see what I'm thinking, if He knows the questions or requests I have in my mind, then why do I need to pray about them, either out loud or in the silence of my mind?  It kind of seems unnecessary, in one sense.  He already knows.  Why do I need to take the time to put my thoughts in order, to to make the formal request of Him?

I suppose there are a great many answers to that question.  I know I have read books that talk about the need for prayer.  Some say it's for our benefit more than God's, so that we actually know what we are thinking and asking.  Some say it's cathartic for us, as though it takes the burden off of us once we have asked.  Others say that it's a breathing part of our lives as Christians, that we are living out our Christian faith as we pray.  And I know that there are good and valid points to all of these thoughts.

I would go so far as to say that there is an element of all of these in God's command to pray, but that there is also something else at work that perhaps reaches even deeper.  It's about growing in our relationship with God as we pray.  It's not like God needs to hear our voice or our thoughts in order to respond, though He does take great delight in responding when we do take the time to formalize our prayers in such a way.  But God really wants us to have that living, breathing relationship with Him, which is part of the emphasis on prayer.  As you talk to someone, you establish relationship with them.  And we shouldn't be surprised to learn that the same principle applies in our relationship with God.

So take time to pray today.  Do it because you have things you want to ask from God, or to get things off your chest.  But do it also because you want to grow and deepen the relationship you have with Him.  Talk with God.  Sure, sometimes our prayers are lighter and don't have too much substance, and at other times, they are very weighty.  The thing is, God dearly loves that we establish that relationship with Him as our dearly loved Father, just as He assures us that He is our dear Father who loves His dear children.

New Year, New Place, New Thoughts

Okay, after a long absence, I am back and will be making a lot of effort to get things up here several times a week.

Many of you may be familiar with the reason for my absence.  Last November, I took a call to a new church in Georgia.  That meant that December became a month where I was not only wrapping up things at my former congregation, but I was preparing for all the "extras" of Advent and Christmas, while packing up and trying to get our house ready to sell.  Sadly, that meant that internet and TV time became very low priority.

However, there are many things that I am thankful for in the whole process.  First, we put our house up on the market on a Friday.  There was a showing on Saturday, and the family made an offer that afternoon.  After the usual minor haggling, we reached an agreement that Sunday.  Yes, our house sold in basically one day!  God has continued to point out what He wants us to do in that.

Then, we are also thankful that we found a place to rent for the next six months.  We went back and forth on whether we should buy right away, or rent and look around for a bit.  We eventually decided to rent, and now have a nice house (though quirky) that we are staying at.  Even better, it's less than a mile from the church.

Another reason to give thanks is that practically all our stuff arrived in good condition.  Though we haven't opened all the boxes yet, we've only really found a few minor breakages or dings on things.  God has been good to us by protecting our household things during their long trip.  (Though we are still awaiting the arrival of a car!!!)

Also, it has been humbling to see how God has provided for us.  In our conversations with the owners of the house we are renting, they failed to let us know that there wasn't a refrigerator.  We were able to rather quickly get a small, dorm style fridge, but then, on Sunday, after one announcement, a family said that they had just gotten a new one, which meant that they had an old one that they were getting rid of.  They happened to have the new one installed the day before it was announced that we needed one at church, and they were able to bring it over later on Sunday.  God really has been providing well for us throughout this time.

There are many things we are looking forward to, even as we remember the place that we called home for so long.  It will be a transition, and it will carry its challenges, but so far, we have really seen God's hand in saying that our new home and church is the place that He has set aside for us.  Thanks be to God!